The next time you consider tussling with an Amherstburg police officer or telling her what you really think, be careful — you could be on video.

Starting on Wednesday, some Amherstburg officers will be sporting “body-worn” video cameras to record interactions with members of the public. It’s a practice that has helped calm down irate citizens and reduce complaints against cops in other jurisdictions.

“Interestingly, there were no complaints against police officers using the equipment,” said Bowen Osoko, spokesman for police in Victoria, B.C., which also ran a pilot project with similar cameras. “Officers liked them and we received no complaints from people. And I’ve got to tell you, people in Victoria, they complain a lot.”

Amherstburg chief Tim Berthiaume said the aim is to enhance officer and public safety, increase transparency and accountability, provide better evidence for court, identify training needs and reduce time spent in court, on investigations and dealing with public complaints.

The pilot project will begin with one patrol officer on the day shift and one on the night shift wearing the lapel cameras, which record audio and video. Seven officers have been trained so far. If the 30-day field test goes well, those officers will be outfitted for a year. If that is successful, all 20 patrol officers will be outfitted.

The cameras, which also act as microphones for portable radios, cost about $600 each.

They must be rolling anytime there is a call for service. Amherstburg police policy states the camera must be on at the beginning of the call, and left on until the call is finished. The officer is responsible for turning the camera on and off, but it’s not optional.

“Any officer that does not activate it would be subject to discipline under the Police Services Act,” said Berthiaume.

He said officers can’t access the memory card because the camera would have to be disassembled to get to it.

“It increases the integrity of the software and the data that is collected,” he said. “An officer can download the data to our server, they can copy the data, but they can not delete any data once it’s recorded.”

Berthiaume acknowledged the camera is “not the end all and be all.” There are some things it can’t catch. In a drunk driving case, Berthiaume said, the camera may catch someone’s slurred speech but it can’t smell booze on their breath.

“Things like an officer’s perception, what was going on outside the angle of view of the camera,” said Berthiaume. “So it’s good evidence but it’s not all of the evidence.”

Despite that, other jurisdictions have had success with the cameras. Several police services in the U.S. are using or testing cameras, including the Rialto and Modesto police departments in California. They didn’t return phone calls Friday.

But media reports have stated that in Rialto, where a study began in Feb. 2012, there was an 88 per cent decline in complaints against police. The use of force by officers declined 60 per cent.

In Canada, Thunder Bay police have done field testing. Police in Victoria, B.C., also tried out the cameras, but decided not to implement them. Victoria police ran a field test from July 1, 2009 to Oct. 30, 2009, with officers on foot and bicycle patrol.

In that period, police submitted 85 charges to the court system. The Crown approved 79 of those. By the time of the study report in Feb. 2010, there had been 11 convictions, with 59 of the charges still before the courts. Osoko said many of those are still before the courts. Nine charges were stayed or withdrawn.

Berthiaume said Victoria officers told him that when people realized they were on camera, “their demeanour changed.”

“We believe that will be the case here as well,” he said. “So we hope to see increased officer safety and public safety.”

Despite the success of the cameras, the cost of the necessary infrastructure convinced Victoria to abandon the project. Osoko said B.C. has different rules than other provinces.

“We’d have to be able to download and store all the video for a certain period of time, but then we’d also have to provide transcription services in order to submit them to the Crown,” he said. “We’d literally have to write out everything that was heard, said, appeared frame by frame by frame in all of them in order for them to be used in court.”

He said the department would need to hire at least three or four new people.

“Four extra people would actually be a large impact on our budget,” said Osoko. “It’s basically the cost of two extra cars on the road. So would you rather have people driving really quickly to domestic assaults, or cameras on officers?”

Amherstburg Police unveil their body-worn video cameras which will be operated by police while attending calls, Friday April 19, 2013. The video camera is built into the officers’ radio microphone and can be attached to their shoulder or vest. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

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